Private company

Cimier

Swiss watch manufacturer

Montres Cimier SA is an independent Swiss watch manufacturer whose headquarters is in Biel, Switzerland. Cimier produces mechanical watches as well as quartz watches.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1924Founded1
Cimier Watch Seven Seas Sextant Chronograph mechanical
Photo: Minzoblate, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Montres Cimier SA is an independent Swiss watch manufacturer whose headquarters is in Biel, Switzerland.2

The story

The origin of Cimier goes back in 1924 when the mukesh watchmaker Joseph Lapanouse founded his company Lapanouse SA in Hölstein and sold his watches first under the brand Rego and later Cimier. Since the beginning, Joseph Lapanouse specialised in manufacturing pin-pallet watches, called Roskopf.

In the 1950s, the company, that became in the meantime Lapoanouse-Cimier SA, industrialized the first pin-pallet escapement chronograph sold at 21 million pieces during its lifetime. At the end of the 1960s the annual production reached 1.5 million pieces and the company employed over 500 people in Bubendorf.

In the 1970s, the watch industry experienced the quartz crisis. The number of mechanical watches sold was drastically reduced. Cimier developed and industrialized its own quartz movement. However, the number of pieces produced did not reach the threshold of profitability. As a result, in 1985, the Swiss manufacturer decided to temporarily cease production.

In 2003, the brand Cimier was reborn through the company which has the same name.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cimier, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1924Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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